Flat Out
This is a street intervention work: life size cut outs of our children are placed in hazardous situations, handed to strangers, photographed in public spaces. We are re-claiming our choices of parenting and we maintain high-end glamour at all times, because the competition is always on for the title of ‘yummy mummy’.
We are mothers. We are working mothers. We are tired. We are tired of being judged for our absence at PTA meetings, of missing a log entry in the reading diary, of not providing party bags. Tired of others deciding if we are responsible parents. Of being tutted at for letting our children roll in puddles, for bringing them to work in half term, for laughing at their tantrums. For letting them stay up late, for taking them to bed early, for not reading the sleeping manuals. For showing them we have emotions. Tired of worrying how we smile at strangers’ children and hesitating before we help them down the climbing frame. Tired of decisions being taken out of our hands.
We are tired of being tourists of our own parenting.